Chapter Text
The reality of things, I found, was that the trio of Firsts knew each other quite well. I had trouble believing it, but Genesis turned out to be right—Sephiroth was in fact bored. Very bored.
I would know, because I had been stalking him all morning.
Okay—no. Maybe stalking was an exaggeration. Just sorta… creeping. Guh, no, that didn't sound any better. I just had a lot of errands to run on the SOLDIER floor, and apparently so did he, and at some point it became less about running errands and more about seeing what the fearsome Sephiroth did when he was stuck at HQ. Until last night I had assumed he was doing paperwork or going to meetings or something, but Genesis had debunked my paperwork theory and I hadn't seen the guy attend a single meeting other than the one he'd gotten out of when I first caught sight of him a few hours ago.
So far I had observed that a squadron of Thirds was running drills in the training room, which seemed to really annoy the general, though he didn't show it—I could just tell by the way he glanced at that door every time he walked by.
People saluted and greeted him as he passed in the halls, but he never spoke more than a few words to any of them, clearly not one for idle chitchat. That and he gave off the air of a man on a mission—except that mission was pretty unclear.
As I had just gotten back yesterday, today was technically a day off. Genesis was out, Kunsel and Zack were gone until the evening, and Cloud wasn't answering my texts (of course). At this point I had managed to finish and submit a report, clean my room, fold a bunch of laundry, shoot the shit with some guys in the break room, read the newspaper and drink about three cups of coffee.
If I hadn't been paying attention, I would've assumed Sephiroth was swamped with some pile of tasks by the way he had been storming around all morning—but the reality was, hilariously enough, quite the opposite. I had gotten more accomplished so far than he had. I was being more productive than Sephiroth! Me!
Honestly, I was feeling so accomplished by that fact that I was considering just throwing in the towel at eleven AM. It was pretty rare that I got this much unstructured free time. I had turned my phone off hours ago, figuring that if anyone really needed me, I wasn't going to leave this floor anyway.
Taking a real break would be nice. Grab a pint of ice cream, change back into pajamas, climb into a nest of blankets and read a book for a few hours… when was the last time I had done something like that? Nobody was around to judge me today. Maybe some potato chips too—sweet and savory. Why didn't this world have Pringles?
Sitting in the break room, I finished the crossword I had been working on and pushed the paper aside. Everyone had filtered out a little earlier as they continued on their day, and I had been enjoying the quiet. But I knew that quiet couldn't last long, and the only place that was really safe was my room. It was time to commence Operation: Bum Day. I didn't actually have a pair of comfy sweat pants to throw on… ah well, who needs pants.
The sound of footsteps interrupted my thoughts. I looked up just in time to see—who else?—the very subject of my morning stalk session. He stopped in the doorway and saw me, and I swear his eyes lit up. I felt my stomach sink as I realized I had just gotten caught in the warpath of Bored Sephiroth. Was this what a toy mouse felt like before the cat pounced?
"There you are." Scarier words had never been spoken.
"Here I am. Sir."
I straightened my back a bit, but remained seated. I'd say it was because I was being defiant, but really my legs had just turned to noodles.
"Off today, I presume?" he asked, striding into the room.
"…Yeah," I replied with a frown. Not like I could get away with a lie when I was literally sitting there with a finished crossword right next to me.
"Good. I have need of you."
He walked up to the coffee machine behind me and poured himself a cup from the half pot I had left on the burner. Taking a sip, he turned back to face me. His brow furrowed lightly.
"This isn't company coffee."
"Nope," I replied, happy for the distraction. "It's from Gongaga; Zack got some in a care package from his folks. Nice, right? I was starting to forget what real coffee tasted like. Company roast is like… not even the knockoff of a good brand, it's like the knockoff's bastard child."
"Glad to hear we're on the same page in at least one matter," Sephiroth commented, the corners of his lips upturning. "Angeal never informed me his student had access to Gongaga Kona. I'll admit I feel a little betrayed."
I caught myself smiling back—though I couldn't help but think that in the end if this was the worst betrayal Sephiroth suffered, he could count himself one lucky man. Gongaga Kona… so he was a coffee guy. Interesting. He took his black, too.
"Zack gave Angeal some too," I pointed out. "He probably didn't want to share."
"Hmph. The truth is a bitter pill…" Sephiroth smirked, setting down his mug. "But that's not why I'm here. Your last mission was of greater import than I once believed."
My eyebrows flew up. "The whole fiasco with Corneo? Why?"
"Strife produced some interesting documents during our meeting. The materials the company requested were there, but a leaflet from the Colosseum was mixed in with the pile." Sephiroth reached into a pocket of his coat, pulling out a piece of paper. He held it out to me.
I took it, frowning. It was most certainly Corneo's work, if the gaudy red and gold print and gratuitous use of kanji were any indicator. The brochure was advertising an arena that apparently existed somewhere in Wall Market. Corneo had a colosseum? Huh. Didn't remember that.
The words "TEST YOUR MIGHT" took up half the front page of the brochure, and I nearly snorted with amusement to a private joke. Then I opened the brochure fully and my blood ran cold.
There was an image of a fighter facing down a large humanoid monster. The creature was tall and gangly, green skin interlaced with a network of bulging yellow veins.
Exbelua.
I felt my mouth drop open, and by some miracle I managed to stop the expletive that wanted to fall out. It was an enormous effort to school my expression into something a little more controlled.
"That's the monster that attacked the SOLDIER floor a while back," I said, looking back up at Sephiroth. "I thought Tseng killed it."
"He did." The general's expression sobered. "Many details of that incident are classified, but I'm led to believe that an experimental materia was the source of the mutation. The materia was stolen from the Science Department two months ago, and Hojo insists that all of his…specimens…are accounted for. The creature is almost certainly a lab escapee, but it isn't ours."
"The plot thickens," I said. The words had been meant to come out sounding sardonic and almost bored, the way Genesis would have said them. Instead they spilled out in a worried mumble.
I frantically tried to think. How could this be? I destroyed the Exsphere. I had spent the past few months scattering shards of it in random places while I was out on missions, and I was certain I still had a piece or two in my bag. Maybe Hojo was lying… maybe I had missed killing one of those creatures when I was in the labs that night.
An unsettling feeling washed over me. This didn't bode well. I didn't like it at all.
"Something wrong?"
I snapped out of my thoughts, cursing myself for forgetting about my audience. Sephiroth's gaze had sharpened. His eyes flitted down to my right foot, which was doing an involuntary nervous tap dance. I forced it still.
"It's nothing," I lied, and it was obvious he didn't believe me. "What's this have to do with me? You want me to go kill it?"
"No," Sephiroth replied. "The Director has assigned that mission to Zack. I am headed to Kalm on reconnaissance. You will be accompanying me."
"You need backup?" I blurted out incredulously before I could stop myself.
"No. I just thought you'd be interested." He smirked lightly. "Was I wrong?"
Oh.
Even a prodigy cannot defeat a Midgar Zolom without enhancements. The average human body is weak. Fragile. Some battles cannot be won with blind luck alone.
Had he made the connection? At the very least, he knew something was up and wasn't going to give me the freedom to investigate on my own. Shit.
Sephiroth took my silence as enough of a response. Before I could think of what to say, he was already turning away. He paused briefly in the doorway, back to me.
"A transport van is being arranged. We leave in two hours – be ready."
With that, he was gone in a flourish of silver hair and rustling leather. I listened to his footsteps fade down the hall, then feebly reached out to my coffee mug for comfort. It was disappointingly cold.
So much for a relaxing day off… Bored Sephiroth was terrifying.
My bag was packed, uniform donned, and I had about twenty minutes before I needed to make my way down to the parking garage where my stoic babysitter waited. Today felt like payback for all of the times I had spent running away from the silver haired general. The thought of having to spend the entire day under his scrutinizing gaze made me a little queasy. For now I stood in my room, trying to enjoy my last few minutes of sanity.
"Honestly—" Huff. "—I was a little—" Huff. "—disappointed," Zack said over the phone between breaths. "Thought it'd be—" Huff. "—more of a challenge."
"Zack, do you really have to be doing squats right now?"
"…Sorry." I heard him take one last deep breath, letting it out in a rush. "Just antsy. Didn't they call in Angeal last time? This one must've been way weaker."
"Maybe," I replied halfheartedly.
I had called to check in on him and see if he had any details about his mission, but it looked like he had already taken care of things without much fanfare. He said Tseng had accompanied him and was currently questioning Corneo on the particulars of how he'd acquired the monster. Zack was on standby for the next few hours until things were cleared up. I was interested in what sort of details the Turk's investigation might unveil, but I doubted Zack would be able to tell me anything.
I looked down at the palm of my hand, where the last shard of my Exsphere was cradled. It gleamed under the fluorescent lighting, looking like nothing more than a piece of broken marble. The sense of thrumming power beneath the surface was absent now, as was the itching hunger the stone usually possessed when its innate energy wasn't dampened by a Key Crest.
Zack killed the Exbelua… who had that person been? Just another innocent, crushed under the heel of Shinra's boot?
Was my presence here… really making this world better? Or was my arrogance getting people killed?
Cloud… you would know what to do.
"…you?" Zack's voice again.
"Huh?" I started, remembering that I still had the PHS pressed to my ear. "Sorry, didn't catch that."
"I was asking what you were up to later. You're off today, right? Kunsel says there's live music at the Gob tonight."
'The Gob' was the locals' affectionate name for Goblins Bar, a very popular above-plate hub right next door to the LOVELESS theater. It was a place that the trio of Firsts often frequented as part of a Friday night ritual. Genesis detested the nickname and called it tacky (as though the place's full name was much better).
"Can't go, sorry," I said in response. "I got called in for a last-minute recon mission in Kalm. With Sephiroth."
"What, seriously?!" His outburst was loud enough that I pulled the phone away from my ear with a wince. "Details!"
I sighed. "That's all I've got. I can't imagine what we need to check out in Kalm of all places, but it's probably related to these monsters that have been cropping up."
"Recon with Sephiroth, huh…" Zack was quiet for a moment, mulling over the idea. "I've never actually been on a mission with him. Been on tons with Angeal… and Genesis once, but he just made me carry his stuff while he did all the fighting."
"Sounds about right," I remarked, snorting laughter.
"But hey, this should be good training, right? Fighting him in simulation is nothing compared to seeing the real deal."
"I doubt we'll doing any fighting if we're on reconnaissance, Zack." A feeling of chagrin washed through me. Sometimes I forgot that everyone probably knew by now that I was the one always obsessively battling the Sephiroth sim. Hell, even Sephiroth himself knew.
"C'mon, stay positive! You never know! At least one of us needs to see some real action today." Excitable as usual. He failed to pick up on the complete lack of enthusiasm in my responses. Did Zack mistake my uneasiness around the general for some kind of hero worship?
"You never know…" I repeated in a distracted mumble. My eyes strayed over to the alarm clock next to my bed, and I swore under my breath. "I'm gonna be late. I gotta let you go, Zack."
"Right. See ya."
"Later."
I ended the call and pocketed my phone, still staring at the Exsphere shard resting in my other hand. After a moment, I shook my head and dropped it back into my bag.
Snap out of it. Time to focus.
Turning on my heel, I slung my bag over my shoulder and left the room.
I wasn't late in the end, but I ended up having to skip waiting for the elevator in favor of jumping a bunch of landings down the stairwell. A few security officers scolded me loudly as I passed and I may have scared the bejesus out of some poor office worker, but it mostly turned out okay. Zack would have fully approved of my methods; he was rubbing off on me.
When I finally met Sephiroth by the transport van, he smirked and commented that perhaps I needed more training if I was that out of breath running from the elevator. I was too embarrassed to tell him I had just sprinted down fifty floors to avoid his disapproval. It was bad enough that he had actually been looking for me half the morning, not just storming around aimlessly – when I turned my phone back on earlier, I saw the missed call.
We had two security force officers with us, one of them driving. They were headed out to relieve the posts of a few others in Kalm, so we'd be splitting up and joining their associates on the return trip. Both men had gone stiff and silent in the presence of Sephiroth. One of them kept fidgeting with his baton and I had to resist the urge to snatch it away from him.
Honestly, being Sephiroth had to be annoying and isolating if most people he met acted like this. Not that my own behavior really helped matters. I mean, really—he could at least try to be less terrifying.
Normally, the drive out to Kalm took about two to three hours, depending on weather – sometimes the wastes outside of Midgar could be an absolute mess in the rain. Conditions were optimal today and we covered the distance relatively quickly. Inside the transport van, though, the concept of time ceased to exist. There was only an endless awkward purgatory where my only two human buffers refused to speak and break the tension.
Sephiroth himself seemed completely unbothered. He was actually staring at his phone most of the ride. Based on how much he was typing, I assumed he was answering emails or writing a report. Or maybe he was just a teenage girl at heart having extended text conversations, hell if I knew. It definitely was kind of funny to see him tapping away with both thumbs at a speed that would put most high schoolers to shame.
"Motion sickness?"
The sound of his voice cutting through the silence jerked me out of my thoughts. I had been leaning back against the wall of the van, head tilted up at the roof and eyes screwed shut. I had honestly just been trying really hard to pretend I was anywhere else, but I could see where he might have misread my body language.
"Nah," I replied, looking over to see that the general had finally stowed away his phone. "Just tired. Think I drank too much coffee earlier."
"Rest while you can, then. It's going to be a long day."
I grimaced. "So much for a day off…"
"A SOLDIER is always on duty." The words were delivered with a wry, knowing smile.
There was nothing I could say to that. Technically, he was right. It wasn't even the first time I'd had a "day off" snatched away from me last-minute. We went where we were needed, when we were needed. We were Shinra property, after all.
I released a long-suffering sigh and leaned back once more, trying to relax my tense muscles. Sephiroth took to staring past the driver to the road ahead, and we fell back into a silence that wasn't exactly companionable, but marginally more tolerable.
It was weird just existing in the man's presence for a stretch of time like this. No questions, no searching looks or verbal sparring. Silence was easier; it gave me breathing room and time to think.
I stole a glance at the general out of the corner of my eye. Glossy silver hair that seemed to almost shimmer in the late afternoon sun. Strong jawline, full lips, luminous blue eyes dappled with flecks of green – like crushed emeralds. He had the beauty, poise and grace of an apex predator. Untouchable.
My mind wandered back to the nightmares I'd had. They hadn't returned since the mako treatments, and they had grown fuzzier over the months, but certain scenes had played over in my head so many times that they were still crystal clear.
Running towards the image of Sephiroth's retreating back, my legs feeling impossibly heavy and flames licking at my heels. The ground beneath me slick with blood.
Sinister, catlike green eyes pinning me in place. A gaze filled with so much hatred it was almost palpable.
The bones in my wrist breaking as the man held it in a crushing grip, commanding me not to interfere. Feeling his booming directive resonate through my entire body, freezing the breath in my lungs and overpowering me with a sense of primal terror.
Those nightmares… were they a warning of what might come to pass? I often played those scenes through my head when I was about to face off against the Sephiroth sim. They were my motivation, a reminder of what Shinra's great hero was ultimately capable of.
Except…
An image came to my mind of a time I had caught a glimpse of Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth out for drinks after hours. I had been passing by Goblins Bar when I heard the roaring belly laugh that Angeal usually reserved for when Zack had done something particularly foolish. When I looked in the direction it had come from, I saw the three of them through the window – Angeal still laughing, Genesis looking peeved, and Sephiroth smiling quietly over the rim of his pint glass. It was the most unguarded I had ever seen him. He had looked… loose. Relaxed.
That mental image of him left me conflicted. It was hard to reconcile the two versions of Sephiroth in my head.
I had told Genesis that I would try to look out for him. But… could I really save him? Could I, when I was so busy trying to clean up a mess of my own creation? I didn't even know how much time we had left… only how much I had wasted.
"We're here."
The general's voice drew me back to the present just in time for me to feel the vehicle roll to a stop. I straightened my posture, trying to shake off the negative turn my thoughts had taken. One thing at a time. For now, I just needed to survive the day.
The cobblestone streets of Kalm were somewhat familiar to me, though I had only been here a handful of times. The town was a nice escape when the hustle and bustle of Midgar got to be too stifling. I liked that it was quiet here… though knowing that was partly because of the failing mining industry sucked some of the enjoyment out of it. Shinra dispatched SOLDIERs to the mythril mine to deal with the monster infestation occasionally, but the Wutai War had diverted the company's attentions long enough that it no longer seemed to be a priority. The monster populations everywhere else had also increased, and SOLDIER had its hands full. Sucking the planet dry did have its drawbacks.
The appearance of SOLDIER's general caused many heads to turn. Last time I was here I had accused Genesis of trying to draw attention, but Sephiroth didn't even have to try. His distinctive silver tresses made it impossible for him to blend in.
I scarcely had time to exit the van before he was halfway up the street, a destination clearly in mind. I spent the next ten minutes fighting to keep up with his long strides. Where the hell were we going?
Suddenly the familiarity of the streets really sank in, and I realized with a jolt that we were actually retracing the steps that Genesis and I had taken before. We had gone out this way to talk, that day a while back when I finally came clean. I had destroyed the Exsphere on these same cobblestones.
Just when I was getting a sinking feeling that somehow Sephiroth knew, he stopped. I nearly collided with his back and managed to catch myself at the last second.
"Here."
Here? I stared at him, confused, and then followed his gaze. Relief rushed through me when I realized he was staring at one of the abandoned miners' townhouses. Jeez… what had I been so worried about? There was no way he could know that this particular spot held any significance for me. He wasn't the all-powerful, omnipotent being my nightmares built him up to be.
"What's here?" I asked, finally remembering my voice. "I was under the impression that these places were abandoned."
"Abandoned, but not empty," my companion responded. "We've had reports of recent comings and goings as well as rumors about strange monster sightings."
"Strange monsters…" I had to hope it was just a coincidence. But if it was, I probably wouldn't be here.
"Let's go. Our mission is not to engage, but be on guard all the same."
"Right."
Feeling on edge, I followed him to the door of the largest house. I knew this place wasn't supposed to see much traffic, but it suddenly occurred to me that it was kind of creepy how utterly deserted it was in the middle of the day. I couldn't remember it being quite this empty last time.
The front door was locked when Sephiroth tried it. He gave the door a light push, breaking the lock. No need to kick any doors in with human enhancements on your side.
The door opened up to a long, wide hallway with high ceilings. A staircase and banister curved off to the left, and an arched doorway to my right seemed to open up into a living area. Closer to the end of the hall were three closed doors.
Soft light filtered in through a window at the top of the stairs. I could see dust motes floating through the air. It smelled musty in here, with an undertone of something my nose couldn't quite identify. As I strode deeper into the hallway, my boots crunched on leaves shed by a dead houseplant.
It looked the part of spooky abandoned house, but at the same time… it wasn't completely undisturbed. I could see scuff marks in the dust in some places, and odd indents in the hallway runner beneath my feet.
When I glanced over at Sephiroth, he signaled for me to take the upstairs. I nodded and made my way up quietly while he branched off on his own. The landing at the top of the stairs opened up into a small sitting room with a few doors branching off on either side.
It almost felt like an attic up here. All of the furniture was covered in sheets, and the dust was extra thick. I didn't get the same sense of activity that I had gotten in the entry area. All the same, I poked around for a few minutes, snooping through bedrooms and opening drawers. The most interesting thing I managed to find was the old diary of a miner's daughter. It made me pause for a moment, wondering where the family that once lived here had ended up.
These abandoned houses… I hadn't thought about it before, but it would be the perfect place to hide in plain sight, if you had a mind to. Close to Midgar but away from prying eyes… the side of Kalm that Shinra wanted to forget about. The few security officers that did patrol the town didn't venture out this far. They were more concerned with protecting the company's asset—the mako tank that provided the town with energy. Forgotten townhouses were of low priority.
My PHS buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, seeing a text notification from Sephiroth.
Basement.
"It's always the basement, isn't it…" I muttered under my breath, and began to make my way downstairs.
After some investigation, I was able to follow Sephiroth's fresh footsteps through the film of dust on the hardwood floors. All of the doors at the end of hall were cracked open now, but one of the doors was positioned right beneath the stairs. I decided to peek down that one first, and saw that my hunch was correct.
The faint smell I had noticed earlier was stronger here. Wrinkling my nose, I descended the basement stairs cautiously.
The stairwell opened up into an unfinished room with floors of cool concrete. More sheet covered furniture was down here, but it was all shoved to one side to make space for everything else.
Everything else, meaning crates upon crates of… rocks?
There was a work table in the middle of the room. This table was also covered in dust, but of a different kind. Some of the rocks had been smashed open, revealing a metallic gleam within that almost reminded me of fool's gold.
No… not fool's gold, not quite. Something else. These stones just looked… familiar. There were bottles of different concoctions on the table, and I realized that what I had been smelling this whole time had been chemical.
A single dim bulb hung over a desk in the corner where Sephiroth was currently standing. He had a rumpled stack of papers in his hand. He lowered the papers and looked up as I walked in.
"Upstairs?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. But this…"
"Hmm. It seems the mining operations aren't entirely at an end."
Brow furrowed, I reached out and grabbed one of the rocks off the table. I turned it over in my hand, examining the glittering pockets of gold within.
"This doesn't look like mythril," I remarked.
"Orichalcum," Sephiroth said, walking over. "Very expensive to process and treat, but a powerful magic stabilizer. It's built into materia slots to prevent accidental discharge. The technology to process it is a Shinra trade secret."
I glanced over at the papers he was holding. They just seemed to be an illegible mess of scientific shorthand, with a few scribbled diagrams thrown in. I had to wonder how much of it he was able to understand.
Sephiroth stowed the notes in his coat, then reached over to pluck the orichalcum from my hand and hold it up to the light.
"Worthless in its current state," he mused. "But this cache suggests there may be a processing facility nearby. We should keep moving."
I nodded, following him back up the stairs and out the front door. There were still a few other houses in the area we could check. Orichalcum, huh…
"What exactly would someone need all this for, anyway?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Sephiroth turned his head, glancing at me over his shoulder as we walked. "To stabilize that materia."
I stopped in my tracks. It was obvious. So obvious, that I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it right away.
"Inhibitor ore," I breathed. The ore used to forge Key Crests.
Sephiroth had paused as well, staring at me with a silent question in his eyes. I realized that my traitorous mouth had moved faster than my brain yet again.
"…is what you would probably call it!" I continued the statement, but my voice had gone up an octave. "Anyway, we're wasting daylight. Let's go!"
I pushed past him, hoping to lead the way so that he couldn't see my expression. Never mind the fact that I had just shown more enthusiasm for the mission than I had shown all freaking day. Why did I have to be so bad at this?
Steady footsteps behind me indicated that Sephiroth was following without complaint. Somehow it was ten times worse that he didn't just call me on my slipup. It felt like he was just filing the mistake away to catalogue and examine later.
Key Crests… my own was still nestled in the bottom of my bag, attached to a gold choker I used to wear. Of course the orichalcum had looked familiar. It was the same material my Crest was made of. I remembered sitting by a campfire on a night years ago, watching Lloyd painstakingly carve runes into the ore.
But if my Exsphere was destroyed… what use was a Key Crest?
Unless…
How long had Hojo been in possession of my Exsphere before Genesis and I went to retrieve it?
Too long. Two weeks, at least. What if… what if they'd managed to replicate it somehow?
The idea of that was too sickening to bear. Turning towards the next house on the street, I steeled my resolve. I needed answers.